A chilly breeze blew rapidly against us, hitting every inch of my body with force until I couldn't take it anymore, and I squeezed closer to Zayn's back, my right cheek connecting with his black leather jacket - almost to the point of hurting by how tight I held it in place. I hated the air hitting my face, so I compromised with my self and stayed put, even if it felt utterly embarrassing as I carefully pictured his smug face smirking at my sudden interaction. Even then, I figured it would keep me securely in my spot - another safety measure that I was completely okay with.
Zayn would let out a chuckle every other stop, probably in response to my quick moment of slightly letting him go, only to rapidly cling back to him once he brought the bike to move again.
It was quite a debate figuring out if I was utterly scared or just being cautious, but either way, I couldn't help and agree with the fact that it was exhilarating and a slightly fun experience.
I don't know how long we rode for, but as soon as the engine died, I opened my eyes after closing them when Zayn decided it would be funny to accelerate, even though it already felt like we were going way faster than the speed limit.
Once my eyes adjusted back to the daylight, I looked around the area and inspected the view, trying to comprehend where we were.
I furrowed my eyebrows upon seeing a not-so-fascinating area. In fact, the small neighborhood looked rather intimidating and quite unappealing the more I looked at it. All and all, it was not somewhere I wanted to be, ever.
"Uh, I'm not going to be raped, robbed or murdered, right?" I asked Zayn once we both got out of the bike. I knew I was being a bit over dramatic, but I couldn't help and ask anyway.
"Like I would let that happen," Zayn commented with a roll of his eyes.
"Then what the heck are we doing here? This does not seem like a place I'd want to go on a date, or for anything," I was trying to ignore the 'like I would let that happen' sentence because it was causing a strange, warm feeling in my stomach, and if I thought about it too much, I knew I’d start blushing like crazy.
"I need to get something real quick," Zayn replied, walking toward the sketchy looking house in front of us. It was old with many, many visual defects, not to mention it scared the crap out of me.
"You'll be fine," Zayn answered my thoughts, and grabbed my forearm with his hand, making me follow him inside. The front door squeaked like crazy as he opened it without knocking. "You're allowed to do that?"
Zayn smiled, answering my question without having to say anything else. I raised a brow and continued to follow him deeper into the house, trying to ignore the foul odor of the place, and the uninviting vibe from the worn out furniture and pealing walls.
We finally reached a wooden door that was decorated with spray paint in what seemed like an attempt at graffiti. Zayn opened the door with his foot, making me giggle at his displeased expression. Once it was fully open, two pairs of eyes darted between the small screen TV that played The Notebook, to stare back at us. It was Zayn’s friends from school that had been gone for a while, and they were both sprawled on two red bean bags, a massive amount of junk food that included pizza boxes, chip bags, soda cans and cheeseburgers laying right beneath their feet - some of them looking quite a few days old, which explained the smell.
“Shit, Zayn, what the fuck is a girl doing here,” the curly haired boy said, his green eyes widening at the sight of the surrounding and then back at me. He had a baby face; much to my surprise, particularly because of the tattoos on his arms that could be seen because the shirt he had on was cut from the sleeves.
“Fuck,” the other boy said. He had a buzzed head with chocolate colored eyes, except the sides were so red they almost matched the bean bags, to which I assumed came from the small blunt that burned on the floor. He didn’t have many tattoos, except for two apparent ones on each of his arms.
“I came for the stupid bag you want me to deliver,” Zayn replied, ignoring everything around him, like he was so used to it that it didn’t even bother him anymore.
“Well shit, you could have at least warned us before bringing a pretty girl here, I could have cleaned up or something,” curly boy said, standing up from his seat to shake the crumbs of food that stayed on his pants and to shake my hand. “Harry, the name is Harry, and what’s your name beautiful?”
My eyes widened a bit as I reached for his hand, only because I was not used to someone calling me that, except for Louis.
“Sam,”
“Ah, Sam what a-”
“I’m Liam,” the second boy said, interrupting Harry from whatever he was about to say by standing up and reaching for my hand, without waiting for me to take it.
“Hi,” I shyly commented, trying to ignore the fact that three boys were staring at me intently and two of them were looking at me like a piece of meat they’ve been deprived of.
“Where’s the bag you shitheads?” Zayn said a second later, his face showing anger and impatience.
“Well Jesus, calm the fuck down Zayn, ain’t nobody stealing your girl, we’re just admiring,” Liam commented, not even bothering to stare at Zayn as he spoke, only making me blush even harder, if possible.
“I love that part,” I interrupted, motioning to the screen with my index finger until all three boys turned to see what I was talking about. It was the scene where Noah jumps on the Ferris wheel to get Allie to go on a date with him.
“We uh, uh, it was bet so we’re watching it and yeah,” Harry tried to explain, but it was easy to understand that it was no bet.
“Really? I find it attractive when guys watch romance movies,” I said, to which resulted in three pairs of eyes widening. It was a complete lie of course, I didn’t find it attractive, if anything, it was more cute and adorable – something I was completely positive that I knew they would not like to be called.
“Picked it out m'self,” Harry spoke, a dimple appearing on his cheek as he smiled back at me, making him look way younger and way more adorable than what other students saw back in school. And now that I’ve actually met all three, I couldn’t even imagine why students were so afraid of them or found them dangerous, as they were so not what their tattoos and hard stares showed to others, they were so much more.
“I actually picked it out, he’s lying,” Liam replied, shoving Harry in the head to move him out of the way, which resulted in Harry hitting him on the shoulder and vise versa.
“Hey, dickheads, give me the bag, we have to go!” Zayn responded in a harsh tone. The boys grunted and reached behind one of the drawers, taking out a plastic bag with what looked like dried, brown and gray items. Zayn snatched the bag from Liam’s hand and quickly placed it in the pocket inside his jacket, giving them a hard look as well.
“Well shit, someone’s in a crappy mood. Sam, if you get bored of this guy, our place is always welcomed to you,” Harry winked. Zayn sighed and grabbed me by the arm again, practically pushing us out of the room and out of the house.
“Bye!” I yelled back at them halfway through, only to get a simultaneous ‘bye’ in response.
Once we were back on his bike, I couldn’t help and smile at the interaction we just had. I mean, it was a little weird to experience at first, only because I was not expecting our ‘date’ to involve picking up drugs from Zayn’s friends, but now I didn’t mind the excursion at all.
Eventually we reached a small little diner a couple miles away. Zayn parked the bike and I followed him inside, the smell of steak filling up my nostrils and making my stomach grumble at the thought of me eating a plate of it.
Once we settled into a booth, a girl about our age came to leave the menus, sending a wink my way as she went back behind the counter to get our drinks.
“Did-did she just wink at me?” I asked Zayn, bewilderment evident in my tone as I spoke.
Zayn shook his head with a chuckle and stared down at the table. “You’ve been hit on four times today, how does that feel?”
I blinked a couple times, “Well today has been a completely strange day if you ask me.”
I wasn’t sure if by four times he was adding himself on the list, but the simple thought brought chills on my arms. No one has ever flirted with me apart from Louis, and in reality, I didn’t really want anyone else to.
I needed him and only him.
But I ruined that, so I couldn’t help and appreciate the fact that someone else had.
“You should get used to it,” Zayn commented. I opened my mouth to say something else, but stopped myself, only to be interrupted once again by the waitress.
“So, what would you like to order?” She questioned, eyes fixated on me, and only me.
“Cheeseburger and fries,” Zayn replied to her, a smug expression apparent on his face as he looked back at her and then back at me.
“Same,” I responded, avoiding contact with her piercing stare. She shuffled away with a heavy sigh, leaving Zayn to chuckle and I to start blushing like crazy once again.
“So, uh, your friends are quite the catch,” I commented after a moment to interfere with the embarrassing situation I was put into.
Zayn’s chuckle immediately turned into an embarrassed look. “Yeah, well, they’re idiots, I know.”
“But they’re your idiots,” I replied, receiving a genuine smile from Zayn that suited his face well - very well.
“Right.”
“So, uh, how did you find this place?”
“I was on a job once, it was midnight, and I got hungry,”
“Did your job involve selling drugs?” I asked, only because the question had been running through my mind since we first entered Liam and Harry’s home.
“How about this, you ask me a question and I get to ask you a question, deal?”
“Sure,” I replied, specifically because I had about fifteen questions that I wanted to ask.
“I don’t sell them, sort of. Liam gets the product, Harry finds the customers and I deliver. Now, when did you meet Louis Tomlinson?”
“Wow, you have a system going, very, um, cool? Now, why do you keep asking me about Louis?”
“That’s two questions and you still haven’t answered mine,” he said.
“Fine, uh, I met him freshman year,” I vaguely replied and took a sip of my water.
“He and I, we, have history, bad history. We’re you too in love?”
“Yeah, we were. What kind of bad history?” I pestered.
“Some things are better not to be known,” he replied, staring back at me, “why did you break up with him?”
“Some things are better not to be known,” I repeated.
“Touché.”
Eventually our food arrived, and the questions began to change from personal, deep things to ones about what we liked and disliked – we even went through every single one of his tattoos as he explained why he got every single one. It took quite some time, but it was so interesting to hear him talk about them like mini stories he created. And all of this, it was something I never thought I would be doing with Zayn. In fact, I never in a million years thought I would be sitting on the seat across from him, in a small diner, and on a date. I barely met him this morning, but the fact that we were already out in this situation made me question a lot of things, like why he would be so nice and kind to me? Why he would even be anywhere near interested in someone like me, who spends her time hating her ex-boyfriend that she actually is still madly in love with and with a drunk father that worries more about the amount of beer in the fridge than his own daughter?
It was Zayn, out of all people – the one so many students labeled as the cliché bad boy and all around ‘bad person’.
I should be worried, even scared as I sit in front of him, but after knowing him for a couple hours, it makes me laugh at his labeling and somewhat special to know that he is none of those things, but someone I actually have fun with, and after breaking up with Louis, I thought I’d never find someone like that again.
“This burger was amazing!” I said after finishing everything on the plate. I thought I was not going to be able to finish such massive amount of food, but it was so delicious that I couldn’t help myself.
When we were done, we paid for the food and tipped the waitress - who handed me a piece of paper with her number on it before we exited the door. I blushed at the gesture but kept it to myself, afraid that Zayn would tease me about it even more. We reached my house at around seven; the perfect time to get there because I knew my father would not be around. As soon as we got out of the bike, I headed for the door, saying a “goodbye” to Zayn, but he didn’t leave like I thought he would, instead, he walked to the front door of the house with me, his head facing the concrete floor the entire time.
“Okay, well um, thank you for the date or whatever, and, um, yeah, just thanks,” I probably sounded like an idiot, but I couldn’t help and feel nervous. Movies always had the main characters kiss by the girl’s front door, but I wasn’t ready for that. The idea brought back memories of Louis and I, and it was painful to just even think about those times that I missed so much. I had just met Zayn, and although I had a great time with him, I wasn’t ready to take it to the next level, and honestly, I thought I would never be able to.
“Thanks, for uh, coming,” he said. His eyes were staring back at me, making it harder to make eye contact and causing my cheeks to blush for the millionth time today.
We stood there for what seemed like hours, that is, until Zayn started leaning forward, never leaving eye contact with me. My breath hitched and I stood still, deciding what my next move was. I didn’t want to move, but the sudden image of Louis appearing on my head made me take a step back as soon as our lips were about to touch.
Zayn sighed, his hand running through his hair in vexation.
“I’m sorry, I can’t. We just met today and-”
“Right, whatever, I have to go,” Zayn interrupted, turning back to his bike in a swift movement in which I assumed was anger and annoyance.
I stayed put, watching as he got on the bike and sped off, never turning to look back at me again.
Way to fuck that up too, Sam.
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Zayn and Sam are not going too fast it's part of the story I promise. Louis will be back soon. I kind of rushed this so it's not the best.
Also, to summarize my now deleted Author's Note, please stop saying things like 'update now' 'you take too long'. I am taking very hard classes and it's hard to even be on wattpad so seeing those messages is really unnecessary and makes me update less. So yeah.
Reminisce was deleted but will be back in the summer! And you should follow my other account @nargles where I post other stories :)
Also, I want to make a playlist for this story, so comment a song you think fits THIS story well, and top 15 songs I will give a shout out to whoever comments them, as well as dedicating the next chapter to my favorite one.
Lastly, thanks to LooksDeceive for mentioning The Notebook. A lot of you did too but she was first :)
700 vote goal before next update? pls?